


First Date

by iluvaqt



Series: His Best Girl [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Captain America (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-08
Updated: 2015-06-08
Packaged: 2018-04-03 09:37:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4096033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iluvaqt/pseuds/iluvaqt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve and Felicity meet for coffee.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Date

[ ](http://s13.photobucket.com/user/micki34/media/Banners/FirstDate.jpg.html)

::: ::: :::

Punching out was always a relief at the end of a long shift but today held an extra thrill. Which had an edge that tipped on the side of anxiety. She hadn't planned on dating. This move was about finding out who Felicity Smoak was. Just like with Cooper and the Hacktivists in college she had inadvertently lost herself in Oliver's crusade. It had consumed her off hours and had even spilled into her days at times. In the beginning she swore to help him, but only to find Walter, who she knew was innocent and caught up in a high stakes game in which he was a pawn. After he was found, she had stayed when she realized that under the scruff, ill-temper and terrible lies, Oliver was someone scared, bitter and beaten down but genuinely trying to make their city safer, to fight against corruption, take out the thugs and murderers to save lives. So she had stayed. And instead of just believing in the cause, she had gone and fallen for the dark hero. It was her teen years all over again. Crushing and falling fast for the impassioned crusader. Then he was gone, and she was alone.

As she brushed out her hair and fixed the strap poking out from under the neckline of her sundress, she stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror.

What was she thinking? What did she have in common with a man like Steve Rogers? He was Captain America. A war hero. America's Super Soldier. There was an entire memorial wing in The Smithsonian dedicated to him and his team. He probably had girls throwing themselves at him, propositioning him on a regular basis. And she was mortified to realize that it probably seemed to him, that she was just another one. And he'd simply been polite. This was a business exchange. She'd pimped out her hacker skills and he'd accepted. Her flirting had been unintentional but from an outsider's perspective hardly subtle. If she had thought her crush on Oliver was pathetic, one-sided and totally outside the realm of possibility, then this had a snowball's chance in hell. Her brain had latched on to his utterance of date and hit the ground running. She needed to rein her fangirl in big time if she wanted to be a professional about this. It was just like the first time she met Oliver. He was there for her expertise.

She closed her eyes and held the sink as her mind took her back to the night she'd last seen Oliver. They'd lost communication after the quake. The rumbling finally stopped but the lair's lights continued to flicker overhead before finally going dark. She waited, ten minutes, thirty minutes, an hour. He never came. She was alone. Forgotten in the damaged, cold, structurally questionable old steel-works factory, running on back up power while the streets above her were filled with screams of the helpless, injured and terrified. Diggle had come for her when he managed to fight his was through the chaos in the Glades. No one knew where Oliver was or how to find him. She had tried to go on with her routine, wake up, dress and go to work like normal but she kept expecting him to show up. What was still standing in the Glades fell to looting and vandalism. It wasn't safe to travel through the area alone. She found herself checking her phone several times a day waiting for a text or a call. Seeing news about Moira Queen's arrest and pending hearing, she kept thinking he would show. She even traced his phone to discover he'd left it in his office at Verdant.

It was only when he didn't show for Tommy's funeral that it finally hit her that he wasn't coming back. Thea was left to stand without her brother. Walter had come as a sign of respect and a quiet show of parental support but Thea hadn't reached out to him. It was a small consolation to see that Roy stuck it out, even with all the negative media surrounding the Queens and stood by his girlfriend.

It had been weighing on her mind for the past few months to go to New York after the near miss the city had, had with that freak alien attack. It was so surreal. She had called Kay and he said he was fine but her uncle/second cousin was a tough as nails character and nothing could slow him down or get him to admit his age. He'd had walking pneumonia once and it was only her mom flying over there and forcing him to stay house bound for a week that had gotten him through it.

With her mind made up, she'd packed up her desk and handed in her resignation. She had gone without any plans beyond seeing Kay and leaving Starling. That was a month ago. Things hadn't improved in Starling since then. Oliver was still missing, the police were doing their best to maintain order in the Glades but it looked like vigilantes were popping up all over and threatening the upper class citizens of Starling, and Moira was going to trial in a few months. Diggle kept her updated but so far he hadn't asked her to come back. And she wondered what she would say if he did.

She retouched her fuchsia shade lipstick and dotted a touch of jasmine oil on her pulse points. Zipping everything back into her bag, she squared her shoulders and told herself she was meeting a nice guy for coffee and to talk shop, nothing more. As she walked out of the staff entrance of the Buy More and down the lane to the corner shop, she knew from the twisting in her stomach that her pep talk hadn't worked.

When she walked in, her heart skipped and tightened in her chest. Her scan of the tables told her he wasn't there. Biting down on her lower lip she told herself it was for the best. What would they even talk about? He was from a different era. He was a celebrated veteran and technically older than her grandfather.

She felt a warm presence at her back and the clean, citrus scent of soap and a hint of leather filled her nose. Butterflies fluttered in her chest and she turned slowly, a blush staining her cheeks. "I thought I was going to have to fill a corner booth all on my lonesome."

He flashed her a blinding smile and she fought to remember to breathe. "I like to keep my dates," he said seriously, his eyes betraying a hint of sorrow. "What would you like to have?"

"Oh I can grab my own, thank you..."

"Felicity," he said while catching her elbow. "This is a date. And where I'm from, a gentleman never lets his lady get the check."

Felicity bit her lip, flashed him a smile and nodded quickly. "Okay. A chai latte with no extra sugar, please. And a scone with jam, no cream. Thank you," she added shyly. He smiled her and turned to the barista to place their order.

She waited next to him and watched him from under her lashes. He was so deliberate in all his movements. He kept himself between her and the door and windows and all times, like a human shield. She had been around Oliver and Digg enough to pick up on what he was doing. His eyes darted very quickly around the room taking in every exit and every staff member and patron, scanning for potential threats and how to make a quick escape. His hand rested lightly at the small of her back and she let him lead in choosing their table. He picked her favorite spot without even asking. She wondered if from a strategic point of view, if it was the best spot. They were definitely close to the bathroom and tucked in a corner, and they could see the door. But she always chose it because it was the quietest spot in the bustling coffee house.

When she hesitated in taking a seat, she noticed him frown and hurried to reassure him over the reason for her pause. "I usually sit facing the door with my back to the wall but if you prefer to have an unobstructed view then I can..." She made a switching motion with her hands and his lips twitched in understanding.

"I'll be fine. The back wall is reflective. And I want you to be comfortable too."

Felicity dropped her bag in the corner and scooted into the booth. "I hope you don't mind me kicking off my shoes but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what shoes I'm wearing or how much the shoe salesmen tell you they're cushioned in-soles, my feet are killing me," she pleaded.

Steve's eyes crinkled at the corners and he had to stifle an outright laugh. "Absolutely. I've never worn heels so I can only imagine the pain they inflict. Although come to think of it, my mother did go around the house in slippers a lot."

"Oh, I wear trainers at work. I think I'd be out of a job if I wore heels and had to be on my feet all day."

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but why a department store? You look like you would be at home in design or research, you seem to know a lot about computers."

Felicity shrugged. "Saturated job market and no references. My immediate boss and I didn't get along and the top boss, well, I kinda left on short notice and there was a lot of corporate restructuring going on at the time... Queen Consolidated doesn't have the same pull it used to right now."

Steve sat forward and frowned. "You come from Starling? You were there when the earthquake device went off?"

Felicity swallowed hard and nodded. To a stranger, having worked for Queen Consolidated and leaving so soon after the quake couldn't look good. "I was. I was actually in the Glades when it happened," she said quietly. "A friend of mine watched his friend die. After that, well he took it hard and he left. I guess it turned me around a bit because I left too in the end. Does that make me a bad person, that I just left? I mean so many people lost their homes, family... I.. I lost him but he wasn't really anything. We weren't anything. He was just a friend," she stumbled over the words and caught herself. She watched his expression, many emotions flickering over his face before one settled, empathy.

He took her hand carefully and squeezed it lightly. "Everyone deals with loss differently. Living your life how you choose when it's not hurting anyone isn't selfish, Felicity."

She smiled at him weakly, still feeling a little guilty for abandoning their crusade. But really without Oliver, what could she do? She wasn't a billionaire that could donate resources to rebuilding and emergency relief. She wasn't a fighter, someone who could don a mask and help keep order, she wasn't a politician or a lawyer who could lobby for change. Without Oliver there was no Team Arrow.

"You don't have to help everyone in the world to be a good person. You choose to make a difference with first challenging yourself every day. Be the best person you can be. Help those who need it, where you can. Protect those that can't protect themselves."

Felicity smiled. "Coming from you, that must be the truth," she winked at him playfully.

Steve blushed and dropped his hand away as their drinks and dishes were served. "You're remarkably candid. It's a rare quality in my line of work."

"Not everyone appreciates my candor, Mr. Rogers. So thank you for remarking on it."

Steve cracked a wide grin at the twinkle in her magnetic blue eyes. "You're welcome, Miss Smoak. Now what was this about helping me crack German secrets," he stage whispered, after their server moved out of earshot.

"Give me a name, ten minutes and I'll find you whatever you want to know."

::: ::: :::

The ten minutes turned into an hour and to avoid suspicion, they moved their spying to another free WI-FI spot to continue their searching.

Two hours later her portable hard drive was protesting all the data she had collected and they'd almost been caught out by one of the vendors when they'd leeched a month's worth of bandwidth in forty minutes.

They stole to the back of an almost empty cinema to finish the last leg of her search on an obscure Nazi project with references to Subject Zero. Which they now knew was HYDRA's code for Bucky. It detailed his missions for several years after the end of the war, attributing several unsolved murders to his name. She saw how this news affected Steve and even though she knew that he probably had known this about the man he was searching for going in, from his expression, Felicity knew reason wasn't that simple. James Barnes - Subject Zero, a.k.a The Winter Soldier, slash the Hand of Hydra, Red Star, Ghost and a host of other aliases was someone else to Steve. He was someone important. Someone he cared about. And that was answer enough for Felicity, to decide that she would do whatever she could to help Steve, save his friend.

"I don't know James. Bucky," she corrected herself, touching Steve's arm. "But I will do whatever I can to help you find him. I don't know him, and his dossier scares the hell outta me but I trust you. We barely know each other but I feel I can trust you, is that crazy?"

Steve took her hand in his. "I appreciate your trust in me, Felicity. I won't let you down. Bucky was, is my best friend. He was my brother. HYDRA did this to him. Made him this..." He hung his head his voice hitching. His eyes were watery when he met her gaze. "Call me a fool but I know he's still in there. He could have killed me. He was always an excellent shot. His orders were to kill me but he didn't do it. He couldn't do it because underneath all that brainwashing and programming, he's still Bucky. My best friend, and he needs me. We promised each other. We would always have each other's backs. I left him once before. I'll never do it again. We are in this. Together. Till the end of the line."

Felicity wiped the tear that spilled down his cheek with her thumb. He startled at her touch. Probably surprised he was crying. He let out an embarrassed chuckle and gave her a vulnerable boyish look. She couldn't help herself, she leaned across and kissed him.

At first he froze, but barely a second passed and he was kissing her back. She pushed the laptop from her lap and into her bag and turned fully so she could cup his face and deepen their kiss. He groaned and pulled away, breathing hard.

"I shouldn't. You're so young and I'm old enough to be your father. Well your grandfather," he said his eyes shuttering. He rubbed his hand over the back of his neck a clear sign of his discomfiture over the situation.

Felicity rolled her eyes skyward and put her hands on his chest. That got him to meet her eyes again. "Listen here, Steve Rogers, I hope I don't have to say this often but I will if I have to. You're a man out of time. You've only been awake for about twenty-five, maybe thirty years at most right?"

He nodded solemnly, eyes wide as she leaned against him, one of her palms directly over his heart. She could probably felt it beating like a base drum. She was stern, her voice forceful, her lips still swollen from their kisses and he was mesmerized.

"In which case, you don't have any more worldly experience than I do. So unless you have a kid my age running around somewhere, then I don't see a problem? No?" At his hurried shake of his head, she broke her serious face with a smile. "Then shut up and kiss me."

He didn't offer anymore protest. He put his arms around her in the back of that darkened theater and gave as good as he got in make-out session of his life. All the while his heart racing wondering if they were going to be arrested for indecent behavior but he couldn't stop himself or even consider regret for a second.


End file.
